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…their capsule docked to the station's Zarya module. Upon hatch opening some 80 minutes later, they were greeted by the resident Expedition 14 crew, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin and Suni Williams. Yurchikin and Kotov are beginning six months aboard the station, while Simonyi will spend eleven days.

SHUTTLE UPDATE – KSC
Shuttle program managers have selected June 8th as the next possible launch opportunity for STS-117. They've also determined that Space Shuttle Atlantis's repaired external fuel tank will be used for the mission. Work continues inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to repair insulating foam on the tank. STS-117 is an 11-day assembly mission to the International Space Station.

BLACK HOLE ECLIPSE - CXC
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an eclipse of a supermassive black hole and the disk of hot gas around it. This eclipse occurred in the galaxy NGC 1365 and has allowed astronomers to test two key predictions: the size of a disk feeding a black hole, and the distance between the disk and the material eclipsing it.

SPACE SYMPOSIUM - HQ
NASA exhibits and participants were featured prominently at the 23rd annual National Space Symposium held in Colorado Springs. Hosted by the Space Foundation, the four-day conference is the premier forum for civil, commercial and the national security sectors of the U.S. space industry and draws thousands of attendees from around the world each year.

TEST PILOTS - DFRC
The Dryden Flight Research Center has two new research test pilots. Kelly Latimer is the first female research test pilot employed by Dryden in its 60-year history. Latimer is joined by Nils Larson who, like Latimer, comes to NASA following extensive test and operational flying careers in the U.S. Air Force. As NASA research test pilots, both will fly a variety of research and support aircraft.

MR. SULU – KSC
Actor George Takei, better known as Star Trek's Mr. Sulu, visited the Kennedy Space Center and talked with employees about the benefits of diversity in the work environment. Takei also was given a close-up look at components destined for the International Space Station, the space shuttle launch pads, and an orbiter in its processing hangar.

George Takei SOT: "For 41 years of my acting career I have been associated with space and space exploration via Star Trek. We were just acting. You folks here are doing it in reality."
(sot)

APOLLO 16 – HQ
(Nat Sound Lift-off)
NASA remembers the 35th anniversary of Apollo 16, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on April 16, 1972. Aboard were Commander John Young, Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot, Charles Duke. Apollo 16 was NASA's fifth mission to land on the moon. Among its successes: the first study of the highlands area of the moon…

Astronaut Charles Duke SOT: "Look at the size of that rock."

…and the first use of the ultraviolet camera/spectrograh. The Apollo 16 astronauts also conducted performance tests with the lunar rover and still hold the Guinness Book of World Records top speed for any wheeled vehicle on the moon.